Having attended my first Council meeting, I had a thought. Given that our nation’s Congressional body has a prayer before each session, do you suppose it would help us set the tone of our meetings if we shared a brief meditation before we begin, say, right after the Pledge? The Ann Arbor Rotary Club does this, and they pack the house for almost every lunch meeting.
I’ve copied here a few of the prayers offered for the 4th of July in past years by our Congress. Notice the tone is one of our leaders beseeching the Creator’s help with the job of governing. IF you would consider it, I offer to begin it. We could then alternate this role if it works. A sampling of what we might do appears before the article on Congressional Prayers below. It should not take more than 2-3 minutes. This particular devotion is from Renaissance Unity which “beams” meditations around the globe every day via the Internet. -Sharon
"Pilgrims of Faith": Congressional Prayers for the Fourth of July
Researched by James R. Heintze
By tradition Congress convenes its sessions with opening prayers, one each for the House and Senate. Most prayers are spiritual, reflective, and tend to focus on, for example, the need for heavenly guidance for the work Congress is about to tackle. Independence Day prayers are somewhat different in that they have included topical commentary and perspective-based sentiments regarding the Declaration of Independence and the country's patriots. These prayers are more colorful than others and tend to evoke a sense of patriotism and pride. When Congress is adjourned on the Fourth of July, holiday prayers are given by House and Senate chaplains either before July 4 or immediately upon reconvening.
Included below are a sampling of House and Senate prayers arranged in chronological order.
Prayers in Congress
1943 (July 5), Senate Prayer
The Chaplain, Rev. Frederick Brown Harris, D.D., offered the following prayer:
Our fathers' God and ours, on the birthday of national independence we confess our dependence upon Thee. Without Thee we are lost in spite of the overwhelming might of our national arms.
We thank Thee for those pilgrims of faith who came hither in their frail barque across mountainous seas and who stepped upon strange shores with the salutation to a new world, "In the Name of God. Amen." The Nation here established, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal has acknowledged that Name above every name and reverenced it, has built its altars, reared its temples, and raised its steeples, emblems of a faith that points to the skies and wings its sure and certain way to God.
Make that faith of the fathers, we pray, real to us in these tempestuous days. Save us from a freedom of speech so empty that we have nothing worth saying, from a freedom of worship so futile that we have no God to adore, from freedom from want and fear with no creative idea as to how to use our plenty or our security for the redemption of our social order and for the salvation of our own souls. Let all that is low and unworthy in us sink to the depths. Let all that is high and fine in us rise to greet the morn of a new day confident that the best is yet to be. Amen. (Source: Congressional Record-Senate, 78th Congress, first session, 89/5, July 5, 1943, 7160.)
1962 (July 5), House Prayer
The Chaplain, Rev. Bernard Braskamp, D.D., offered the following prayer: Psalm 11: 3: If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do?
O Thou Eternal God, may our minds and hearts be stirred with a deepening sense of patriotism and gratitude as we continue to think of that day of high and holy memory in our national history when a company of God-fearing men were guided by Thy divine wisdom to sign the Declaration of Independence.
Grant that the blessings of freedom, which were purchased at a tremendous cost and which we prize so highly and are privileged to enjoy in such an abundant measure, may always be coordinated with the spirit of self-discipline.
Help us to cling with increasing tenacity of faith and fortitude to the great truth proclaimed by George Washington in his Farewell Address that religion and morality are indispensable and our national greatness if we allow them to be subverted and obliterated by secularism.
Hear us in the name of our blessed Lord. Amen.
(Source: Congressional Record- House, 87th Congress, second session, 108/9, Thursday, July 5, 1962, 12703.)
1969 (July 2), Senate Prayer
The Chaplain, the Reverend Edward L. R. Elson, D.D., offered the following prayer:
We thank Thee, O God, that the freedom we celebrate in coming days is not an attainment, but an obtainment that it is Thy precious gift to man as part of his createdness. We thank Thee for the daring of our forefathers in reclaiming their "ancient rights."
We thank Thee, too, for the heroes' valor, the patriots' devotion, the prophets' vision, and for all the blood and sweat and toil by which our freedom was purchased. As we commemorate our national independence accept again the declaration of our everlasting dependence upon Thee.
In all our joy and thanksgiving enable us to remain a nation "under God," and give us grace and goodness to minister to mankind in His name. Amen.
(Source: Congressional Record-Senate, 91st Congress, first session, 115/14, Wednesday, July 2, 1969, 18185.)
Thursday, August 23, 2007
